MAAM Salta
The highlight of the Museo de Arqueología de Alta Montaña are the mummies of three children, sacrificed in the Inca period on the Llullaillaco volcano (6739 m), with over 100 burial offerings.
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A selection of offerings from the grave of 15-year-old Maiden, including:
Manka chulla chaki (ceramic pot with pedestal, far left); cloth bags; two keros (wooden drinking cups); a pair of ceramic plates and bowls with duck heads (p'uku wallata); the shell of a spondylus (spiny oyster); anthropomorphic figurines; small figures representing llamas or other Andean camelids as fertility symbols; cloth bags containing cornmeal.
The Incas considered the spondylus shell, called mullu in Quechua, more valuable than gold and therefore the "favorite food" of the huacas (local deities). For this reason, whole spondylus shells were also found in the Llullaillaco tombs.
More information, see:
MAAM: Burial Offerings
© Photos, summary: Binder & Haupt, Universes in Universe
The highlight of the Museo de Arqueología de Alta Montaña are the mummies of three children, sacrificed in the Inca period on the Llullaillaco volcano (6739 m), with over 100 burial offerings.